The three subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome did not significantly differ in terms of symptom severity and quality of life, according to recent study data.

“Traditionally, it has always been thought that patients with the diarrhea form of IBS tend to be more anxious,” Peter J. Whorwell, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and gastroenterology, Wythenshawe Hospital, United Kingdom, told Healio.com/Gastroenterology. “In addition, it has also been considered that the symptom profiles in the three subtypes are different. However, our study does not support these ideas and, in this large group of patients, there was very little to choose between them.”

“Consequently, a patient should not necessarily be denied treatment, say for anxiety, just because they are constipated and that group is generally not thought to be as anxious as the diarrhea group,” said Whorwell. “The strength of this study is that it was done on a very large group of patients, therefore, the results are likely to be reliable.

“A possible drawback is that our patients tend to be quite severe as we are a referral center. However, when the more severe patients were excluded, the results still stayed much the same.”